Guest Speaker Phil Hart from Christian Peacemaker Teams will talk about his time in Columbia titled “The Body We Live In”

Today, Phil Hart spoke to us about justice, equity, and compassion in human relations (UU Principle #2.) He explained that his mother introduced him early to the migrant workers who worked the fields of Illinois where he grew up. Much of our identity is given to us. You are American, you speak English as your first language. The vast majority of people sustain the religion of the family they were raised in, so you are most likely a Christian, Muslim or Jew through your inheritance. Most of us were also born “gringo” (as viewed by Spanish or Latino culture.) There are generations of Hispanics born in America because the 1846 U.S. declaration of war on Mexico changed the boundaries of the U.S. to include all of the Northern Half of Mexico. And today, Hispanic heritage Americans who are members of families that have lived in Arizona are stopped and searched by the county police because of the color of their skin leads County police to believe that they are not U.S. citizens. Police in Minnesota draw their gun when they approach the car of a black man who is guilty only of having his auto tail light not working.

When this county was founded, we protested of unequal treatment by the British Monarch. Have we become the British? Have we become the people who condone unequal treatment of our citizenry? If we were created equal under God, then how do we deal with this discrepancy that we have allowed to develop in our society?

You could have been born browner. You could have been born Muslim. You could have been born Chinese or Haitian or Lakota Sioux. You had no choice in the matter. Do Americans have some kind of special entitlement? Some people in this politically charged world say we do. Some say we don’t.

If you would like to participate with people who wrestle with the questions of justice, equity and compassion in human relations, then please drop by on a Sunday morning. We’d love to hear another perspective. Free thinkers welcome.